CHRIS STEVENSON, QMI Agency

LA QUINTA, CALIF. - You have to like the way the Canadians stick together.

Maybe it's because there's not that many of them at the highest levels of the game of golf.

After his opening-round 74 at the PGA Tour's qualifying school, Matt Hill of Brights Grove, Ont., checked his phone.

There was a text from fellow Canadian David Hearn, who finished 98th on the PGA Tour money list this year to keep his Tour card. He could identify with what Hill was going through after that opening round, which included a triple-bogey on the par-3 sixth hole of the Stadium Course and a double on the par-3 13th.

"David Hearn sent me a message after the round saying, 'Don't worry about it. There's lots of golf left.' He said he got through (Q-school), I think, in 2005, and he had a 77, so he said don't worry about it and keep plugging along. That's what I'm going to try and do. There's definitely a long way left. I'm just going to try and build off this and keep going."